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Venus Landing Mission
Back to Venus Activities Unlike a Venus Return Mission, which stretches the resources of a ship to the limit, a Venus landing is the easiest way to reach another planet. *Hard Venus Landing (as performed by the first historical probes who landed on Venus); *Partially Hard Venus Landing (as performed by most of the spaceships who sent probes and rovers to Mars); *Soft Venus Landing (as done by most probes in the simulator); **Payload Delivery Missions (they bring probes and rovers to Venus); **Supply Missions (if you have a space colony and want to expand it, a thing very hard to do on Venus in reality). Basics Depending on what payload you intend to send to Venus, you will need a larger or a smaller launch vehicle. The Delta-v requirement for a Venus mission is not too much. Most of the fuel will be spent to reach Low Earth Orbit. Venus has a bit smaller gravity than Earth and a relatively large Sphere of Influence. Because of this, it is not hard to reach the target. After reaching low Earth orbit and entering the Launch Window, there is room for additional Trajectory Correction Maneuvers. In addition, the Venus atmosphere can be used to Aerobrake. A major advantage is that Venus has a very dense atmosphere, which makes landing extremely easy. some probes can land even without a parachute. The Ship If the purpose is just to bring a Capsule or a Probe to the surface of Venus, then one can easily use the Spaceflight Simulator Model Ship, which is shown on the desktop icon (top-right image). The ship needs no improvements. One Parachute can slow down a payload of 15 t. The ship will use its boosters at liftoff, then its first stage to get low Earth orbit. The second stage is more than enough to reach Venus. If the purpose of the mission is to bring a rover or other supplies for a Venus colony, you have to build a much larger ship. Landing There are multiple ways to land on Venus: Hard Landing This is the simplest way to bring something down. Just set an impact trajectory. The atmosphere will slow down a ship so that in most cases something will survive. If the ship is not aerodynamic (for example it has attached structural parts, RCS thrusters and solar panels), then it might be slowed enough to land softly. Partially Hard Landing This method was done by all space probes that landed on Venus. At some point, the atmosphere is so dense that ships will be slowed enough without a parachute. Soft Landing A parachute will do this without any problems. The ship can be significantly slowed down by the effect of Aerobrake. Parachutes can be safely opened close to the surface. The atmosphere of Venus can be used to safely to Aerobrake. By setting the flight path with periastron at 26 km high, a ship will usually be slowed enough to enter orbit. The second time the ship passes through the atmosphere, it might still reach space at apoastron. If you want your probe to become an Orbiter, conduct an engine burn at apoastron. Well, usually during the third pass through the atmosphere, the ship will be slowed enough not to reach space again. It is possible to safely land on Venus without a parachute. The ship can conduct one or more engine burns near the surface. Fixed Point Landing See also: Fixed Point Landing. This is the most challenging part. Before everything, you need to have something on the surface (another ship or a rover, anything that help you pinpoint the landing location). The ship needs to enter Venus high orbit. A low orbit is not a good place to start. Don't worry, the ship will be slowed down enough once you get close to the surface. Conduct some trajectory correction maneuvers with the engines or with the RCS Thrusters before you reach the atmosphere so that the destination will be straight below you. Once you are in the lower atmosphere, there is room only for very small corrections. See Also *What To Do In Spaceflight Simulator *Venus *Venus Activities Category:Tutorial‏‎